Lurgan Farm 5

Date Fieldwork Started: 01/10/2019

Compiled by: ScRAP

Location Notes: The panel is on the flat upper surface of a large schist outcrop, measuring roughly 80m N-S, situated within a young plantation of mixed deciduous and pine about 100m N of the small settlement of Lurgan on a S facing hillside above upper Strath Tay. There are views through the trees to the hills on the S side of Strath Tay. The panel is 5m from the E edge of the outcrop, which lies about 25m W of a wooden fence to a one-hole golf course and the houses of Lurgan beyond. There is some evidence of quarrying along the S and E edges of the outcrop, and it is likely that some of this stone has been used in the construction of a lime kiln, situated on the edge of the outcrop about 40m SSW of Lurgan Farm 5. The outcrop is mainly covered in young trees, turf and vegetation, but has several exposed areas with carvings and it is likely that there are further carved surfaces beneath the vegetation. There are 10 panels within 15m of Lurgan Farm 5 which, together with this panel, are all grouped under the same Canmore ID (Canmore: 300455; ScRAP: 2477): Lurgan Farm 1 is 10m to the N, Lurgan Farm 2 is 3m to the N, Lurgan Farm 3 is 1.5m to the E, Lurgan Farm 4 is 2m to the N, Lurgan Farm 6 is 4m to the SE, Lurgan Farm 7 is 6m to the SE, Lurgan Farm 8 and 9 are about 10m to the S, and Lurgan Farm 10 is 15m to the S.

Panel Notes: A large, fragmented outcrop comprising about 15 disjointed slabs, separated by fissures, now filled with turf. About five of the slabs do not appear to have markings on them (mostly the NW grouping) but the remainder have quite varied markings on their surfaces. All the marks are well weathered and it becomes difficult to discern, in some cases, what might be man made and what is natural, especially for some of the individual cup marks.

Generally the decoration becomes more concentrated towards the S end of the outcrop but the two NE slabs are also well marked. The NE-most of the slabs has lost more than 50% of it N section (possibly due to freeze/thaw) and so may have originally had more surface marking. The three main slabs to the S all have distinct peck markings. These are most intense and larger & more regular in size in size on the SW slab, where they might be defined as microcups. There are three cup and ring marks on the outcrop, all crudely cut and somewhat asymmetric. There are also other markings taking the form of oval and circular depressions and grooves/gullies.

The decoration is summarised below :

- about 14 individual cup marks of 4-6 cm scattered over the outcrop with some in discrete small groupings. Some of these are obviously man made whilst the most weathered could possibly be natural marks, whilst other apparently natural rock indentations could well be relict cup marks)

- 2 cups marks with single ring marks. On one of the smaller central panels, one somewhat oval cup 7cm x 1 cm (almost appearing star-shaped) with a single asymmetric ring (13 x 11 cm diam.), the other on the NE-most panel - a cup mark (8 x 1.5 cm) with single ring (13 cm diam.). These are very crudely chipped into the rock with both the cups and rings showing various degrees of asymmetry and parts of the rings are also disjointed in places. It might be speculated that these may be be due to poor workmanship rather than intent.

- the SW panel has about 60 microcups(~1cm)/enhanced peck marks distributed fairly regularly and sytematically over its surface. There are a couple of larger (3-4cm) cup marks with the surrounding microcups possibly forming a rosette pattern around them. Rough, slightly curving alignments of the peck marks can be seen especially of the lowest 'row' of marks. The adjacent slab to the E also has some large peck marks and there is a notable curving alignment of 7 of the larger markings.

- the larger SE-most slab has some unusual marks. There are two obvious depressions resembling caters (steep sides, flat bottoms) adjacent to one another. Both of these have carved gullies running out of them in a downhill direction. Not fully appreciated in the field but very obvious on the 3D model is a cup mark with a double ring to the immediate W of the circular depressions.